


BULGARIA

by SILKCUT



Series: ɪɴꜱᴄʀɪʙᴇᴅ ʙʏ ꜱɪʟᴋᴄᴜᴛ [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Character Study, Character Turned Into Vampire, Gen, Inscribed by SILKCUT, Twitter Roleplay Solo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 07:53:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29060856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SILKCUT/pseuds/SILKCUT
Summary: She wasn’t always a monster, she was sure of it. Her remorse over the elderly woman’s death was evidence of that.She can still feel regret and that means she still has humanity, a quality she will do her best to cling onto no matter what.Sunset was upon the lands and in a few short moments it’d be black as sin. She decided to wait it out before she could move and traverse across the woods again. Perhaps she can find a way out of this maze and……where can she go exactly? Where do monsters go?
Series: ɪɴꜱᴄʀɪʙᴇᴅ ʙʏ ꜱɪʟᴋᴄᴜᴛ [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2132040





	BULGARIA

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Ｍａｒｙ Ｌｉｏｎｈｅａｒｔ

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##  **Ｂｕｌｇａｒｉａ**

##  **༻✧**

If it weren’t for the layers of grime, her olive skin would have been unblemished, but her slim legs were covered with them, clinging to her pores like soot. The earth below her wasn’t even stable since she seemed to be already sinking into a crater that scooped her bloodied and bruised body. The torn rags didn’t shield her enough from the chill morning air, so the girl woke up with a shiver that burrowed into her bones, nearly freezing her blood.

She didn’t get up immediately because she simply didn’t posses the energy to pull herself from the ground, at least not for several more minutes. Her skin felt as if it belonged to someone else yet there were enough dull aches in her joints that reminded her that it was still her own. 

Cold—why did she feel so cold?

Eventually she did sit up but the movement itself caused nausea. She resisted the urge to vomit although the temptation was strong, considering there was still a heavy weight pushing down on her, weakening her shoulders and constricting her ribs. The taste in her mouth was like a pile of ashes too which was alarming. With eyes leaking with tears that were not shed voluntarily, the girl glanced around, darting her gaze nervously at her surroundings.

She tried to think but it hurt, and it was still so cold. Her hands sought to pull at her rags but found them severely lacking. As she looked down upon herself she realized that there was an assortment of bruises and bites on her body. The wounds caked her skin in dried blood. She wanted to scream and scream and scream, but the cold emanating inside her veins strangely kept her calm, almost compliant.

Walking was almost an insurmountable struggle. She stumbled and got herself caught in vines and twigs so many times on the way that it was a miracle she even made it far enough to see the entrance to a village. But she made it through, only to collapse on what she readily realized was a pigsty. It was soft though so she didn’t mind and passed out yet again. 

When she woke up, she was inside someone’s abode. The scent of crackling fire revived her and the girl sat up instantly, pulling at the blanket laid on her body. She inspected herself hastily, anxious yet also relieved to see that she had been scrubbed clean and bandaged. The wounds still ached each time she breathed, but at least she didn’t look so broken anymore.

“What happened to you?” she heard a voice coming to her left. She whipped her head to the direction of the sound and pulled at the blanket tighter. Instead of a response, she only blinked rapidly at her host.

It was a woman, possibly someone’s mother—is it her mother? No, she’s not familiar to the girl at all. A dawning realization crept past—nothing about this was familiar to her. Where is she? Who is she?

Wait, there was a name. She could swear she heard it loud and clear even through the jumbled mess inside her head when she woke up the very first time in that hole.

“Lionheart,” she murmured, her voice muted. Her throat hurt as she formed her lips around the words again, “ _Lionheart_.”

## ➷

She stayed inside the humble abode for an entire day and fortnight, cared for by an absolute stranger who treated her like kin even though she had no other reason to do it except out of the true goodness of her heart.

The girl who can only remember the phrase ‘Lionheart’ accepted this kindness even though she was uncertain about everything. No matter how much food she had been fed with and how many times her wounds had been cleaned and attended to, she still didn’t feel as if she was safe from anything. The trepidation in her gut was constant as if she was expecting for another dark cloud to dampen what was supposed to be her haven.

Still, she didn’t want to be ungrateful to her patron’s generosity, and so she made herself as scarce as possible and focused on recovery. She also made sure to thank the woman every time she was fed or had the dressings on her wounds changed. 

Neither of them spoke much to each other, really. She figured that her patron wanted to give her time to reflect and sort things out by herself concerning her memories which were still vague if not completely non-existent. Each time she tried to think of something from her past, the only phrase that would flash in her mind’s eye was ‘Lionheart’.

It was driving her insane, but all she could do now was to lie there on the mattress bereft of hope and try her very best not to dwell on the other part of her trauma which were the details of her assault. She could tell—based on how the woman had cleaned her rather carefully every time she got to her legs—that her virtue had been violated, perhaps a few times by not just one man only.

The heat of her tears would sting each time she would think of that, so she forced herself not to. It had been done. Nothing can ever restore her chastity. To think that any husband would still want to bed her after this was also delusional.

That night, the frigidity of her body worsened. It was as if her chest and the rest of her limbs were turning into ice. It was abnormal in every way. She shook terribly for about an hour, huddled in the farthest corner of the bed as she remained draped under the covers. Suddenly she felt her patron lay next to her, her steady arms seeking contact until they enveloped the girl in a maternal embrace. She closed her eyes and tried her best to drift to sleep, touched by yet another compassionate gesture from the woman.

But it wasn’t enough. She wanted more warmth. Slowly turning to face her patron, the girl’s nose rubbed against the woman’s collarbone directly—and a surge of something powerful and undeniable took over the rest of her faculties then. She stopped breathing for a short moment because she knew that the minute she did, the scent that wafted from the woman’s skin would be so overwhelming. She felt like she was going to vomit, but it wasn’t nausea that was beckoning her right now—but hunger.

It felt so primal and strong that the girl couldn’t think of anything else except to satiate it. So she did. As she opened her mouth widely, her gums felt like something was about to burst through. She didn’t second guess herself and sank her teeth into the woman’s bare neck. Everything just turned black for a moment. She didn’t even notice the way her patron woke up just for a second but failed to struggle due of shock as the blood was drained from her carotid artery.

When the girl came back to awareness, her mouth was still filled with the blood she was unable to completely drink in.

Gripped by fear and slow-curling madness, she turned her head to the now slain body of the woman who had done nothing but care for her since first meeting. The girl couldn’t speak, not while she was still gurgling on the blood. Her fingertips felt numb even as they shook greatly under the pressure of the personal atrocity she had just committed. The horror that she felt expanding in her chest had frozen her in place, though not for long.

She soon seized her patron in a guilty embrace and began to sob. What had she done? What creature of evil has she become? The girl brokenly sobbed once more as she clutched around the dead body of her rescuer. She was now plagued by demons she couldn’t understand.

Soon, other villagers may come looking for the woman and if the girl lingered, she would be persecuted for a crime she never meant to commit. There was no other choice but to be smart about this; to pick up the pieces of herself that still remained sharp and unknowable and just force them to hold together no matter how much they don’t fit. She rummaged through the woman’s wardrobe to find something suitable for escape. The girl also stole what little money she could find. Once fully clothed and ready, she waited until she was sure no one will see her before she fled into the woods, not once looking back from her murder.

  


## ➷

Her flight took her nowhere because there was no reasonable direction in which she wanted to go except north. 

What consumed this nameless girl was simply the strong desire to get away. It wasn’t only because she had just murdered the woman who had welcomed her selflessly into her home and cared for her—but rather it was the brutality in which she had taken that said woman’s life.

Is a monster all she had become now? The coppery taste of fresh blood that mingled in her mouth confirmed it for her. But how could this happen to her—and why? Hot tears spilled from her eyes as she kept running. Twigs snapped and crackled beneath her feet, echoing against the otherwise serene silence of the forest around her.

Every now and then a stray branch would get caught in her hair or burrow into the side of her hip or thigh sharply, but she ignored these things since she was far too consumed with fear to notice any physical pain.

Whatever evil thing she had become, it persisted on haunting her. It corrupted her airway and lungs with each bated breath she took. She ran amok in the woods for what felt like hours, but eventually the girl slowed down her pace when she neared large tree. And even though she grabbed hold onto its study trunk once she reached it, the girl still found that her knees were trembling great, so she collapsed to the ground all the same. The tears on her cheeks have left dirty traces of dirt and salt. A hand shot up to quickly wipe them away as well as some snot. She wiped that hand on the garment she stole and then slowly brought herself to lie on the ground, burying her face into the pile of leaves.

She wished she never woke up from that hole to begin with. Why can’t she remember what happened? Someone—something must have done this to her. Was she cursed? Whose wrath did she incur to deserve such a disease? Because that’s exactly how it felt like to the nameless girl—this dark stirrings she could feel skewering her insides was a corruption of only the most vile of nature.

The overpowering surge of guilt and fatigue won over and the girl ended up passing out yet again under the large canopy of branches. Hours later she woke up to find that the sun has risen. With weary resignation, she sat up from the ground. Strangely enough she felt—better than she expected. Her joints don’t hurt anymore. Her stomach felt full. And she was--

As she moved slightly to her side, she felt something sting the back of her hand. She hastily looked at it, blinking in shock. Something burned her! The girl looked up to spot that the branches have served as a shelter, but sunlight still burst through a few cracks between them. She reached out the other hand to test something, presenting her palm to the light.

She winced when she felt it burn as soon as it made contact with her skin. Still in angry disbelief about what just happened, the girl then placed her palm under the sunlight for a few more moments and felt every agonizing second of pain as the light burned holes through her flesh. Crying out because of the pain and the implication of it, she snatched her hand away and scooted to farthest edge of the tree where the sun can no longer harm her. She sobbed aloud, uncaring whether someone might hear her or not. When she looked at her palm, it had already healed. And that was even more disconcerting.

Although she can’t remember who she was, she did have a fundamental understanding of what she had become. At the back of her mind, she recalled tales about beasts that prowl at night and avoid the day because the sun can scorch them. These beasts are evil and feed on the lives of others. She also knew that they are always hungry.

Could it be—? 

She recalled once more the way the woman’s flesh felt once she punctured her teeth through it and how she sucked ravenously on the blood that flooded her mouth instantly. 

Teeth—no, no, she had f a n g s.

Her chest felt tight yet also curiously empty all at once. She closed her eyes and tried everything so she will not to remember the murder, but the memory was far too recent not to recall. The nameless girl didn’t think it would be possible to ever forget. 

The helplessness imprisoned her, and so she remained stuck there against the tree, asking forgiveness from a God who would banish her Himself now that she was no longer worth saving. Accepting that, she unraveled further.  


  


## ➷

She had to wait for nightfall again. There was no other choice. Upon discovery that exposure to sunlight would burn her, the nameless girl stayed huddled next to the large tree whose long branches served as a canopy above. It had been hours since then, and she starved very badly all throughout. The hunger, of course, was actually thirst for blood, and it was the most dismantling emotion she had ever felt since her miserable awakening. 

It would seem that drinking her late benefactor’s blood wasn’t enough. She should have drained that bitch dry for good measure.

No, no, who was that? Who said that just now? That couldn’t be her…could it?

She can’t think of dangerous, vile thoughts like that.

Resistance was still an option for her, and it will remain as an easy choice to make so long as she stayed hidden and isolated from the rest of the world. But she knew that if she didn’t quench this thirst, she could die.

Would that be so awful? She’s no longer human after all. She’s pollution on earth. Death would be a clemency.

Something stirred inside the nameless girl that urged her not to forfeit her life so easily just yet. It was that primal desire to know who she was and where she came from—to understand the kind of person she was before she had been turned into an abomination.

Was it possible that she had even been human once? And could she really allow herself to die a monster—and, even worse, all alone in the forest with only the trees to accompany her to her grave?

The nameless girl’s eyes drifted across her chest all of a sudden, and she began to shakily unlace the bodice. The bite wounds have healed. Can she heal all by herself? The memory of her injuries depressed her though, and the phantom aches that entailed it continue to ravage her body, leaving her feeling more broken than ever.

No, something must have done this to her. She wasn’t always a monster, she was sure of it. Her remorse over the elderly woman’s death was evidence of that.

She can still feel regret and that means she still has humanity, a quality she will do her best to cling onto no matter what.

Sunset was upon the lands and in a few short moments it’d be black as sin. She decided to wait it out before she could move and traverse across the woods again. Perhaps she can find a way out of this maze and…

…where can she go exactly? Where do monsters go?

She must have fallen asleep again because she jerked up with a start. It was now in the middle of the night. Pulling herself off one of the large roots of the tree, her entire body stiffened when she can sense…someone else in the dark. And by sense, she could actually hear their footsteps crunching against leaves from what she discerned was a safe distance. Not only that but she can also hear their pulse, the steady beating of their heart. 

The thought of another person made her breathless in both dread and anticipation. It made her imagine their soft, supple flesh being pliant under the sharp demand of her fangs--

NO! She grunted low under her breath and buried her face down. She needed to get this under control!

That was wishful thinking, of course, because in flash of a moment, something primal took over the rest of her faculties once more, and she began to mindlessly drift closer towards the scent of human—of prey.

Once she caught first sight of them, that same drive—that toe-curling lust for blood—acted on its own and she quickly lunged at the unsuspecting victim. Her eager mouth latched on their throat, fangs burrowing so deeply into the vein that the pain must have been so immense because the person was unable to cry for help.

This time—this time she couldn’t stop savoring it. The hunger pangs were being alleviated and now she was feeling good—better than before. Moaning as if in sheer ecstasy, the nameless girl gave herself fully into the madness of her beast. 

Once she was able to drink and enjoy an overwhelmingly satisfying amount of blood, she released her mighty hold on her prey. She didn’t even care of the way their lifeless body crashed into the ground with a loud thud. A grin spread across her face.

Monster or not, she felt impossibly alive! 

The girl stretched out her arms to the sides and began spinning. She did it playfully at first until she was moving too fast—faster than she expected. She ended up running through the woods with speed that defied any explanation. Her feet were so light that they hardly touched the earth. Most of all, she didn’t feel any fatigue at all.

Giggling almost insanely to herself, the girl tested more of her shocking new abilities.

She punched a nearby tree in excitement. Her knuckles didn’t hurt either, and whatever scratch or bruise formed had also immediately healed. Still experimenting, she raced back to the place where she just came from earlier. The corpse she abandoned was still bleeding out. She shoved aside her guilt and tried to lift the corpse. It might as well have been made of parchment. The person’s weight hardly fazed her. She can carry him and run at the same time!

Laughter poured out of her, making her giddy, filling her with hope. She only stopped when she realized she was already out of the woods and still carrying the corpse. She got rid of it quickly by throwing it as far as she could. She didn’t look back anymore and hurried out until she reached what she realized was a harbor.

She can see people, hear and smell them with clear-cut clarity that she felt like she must devour them all. But she wouldn’t. She still possessed restraint and there was still the danger of being discovered for the abomination she is and being punished for it.

And yet she felt so good! She was revived to the fullest just after drinking all that blood. That should terrify her but it didn’t. The guilt and remorse were nothing compared to how strong and capable she felt just now and still does.

With that newfound confidence, the nameless girl decided she could perhaps play with a little bit of fire.

She headed to the harbor with a steady gait and a foreboding smirk gracing her blood-caked lips.

## ➷

The hunger she felt mere moments ago had now been sated, and the lingering coppery aftertaste was evidence of that delightful feeding. This was why there was some lightness in the nameless girl’s steps as she made her way to the nearest port. She immediately spotted a man working with ropes, his attention far too preoccupied at the time that he didn’t even notice her presence.

From a distance of five yards, the girl observed him, taking note of every detail about him as she appraised what role he would serve for her. She still had pressing concerns regarding how she would get away from the village whose people may have had already found the corpse of the elderly woman in her home. Her best chance had to be to board one of these ships. The girl glanced around and counted that four ships were docked, arranged side-by-side together. There were also a few people, who have gathered around certain parts of the harbor, but it was still in the middle of the night, so she doubted anyone would pay attention to this corner where only little light from faded lamps touch it.

The man before her finally did look up, his eyes rather concealed because of a generous layer of hair which covered his forehead and spilled over his eyes. For the briefest moment, the nameless girl became scared; after all, when she woke up days ago it was quite clear she had been attacked and raped. She would have turned around and ran from this man, but then she was reminded of her strength and bloodlust from moments ago. 

No one will ever hurt her again. If any man tries to have his way with her once more, she would not hesitate to snap his neck and drink all of his blood. Regaining back confidence, she opted to stay and stand her ground now as she bequeathed this stranger a smile she hoped would be alluring as well as comforting.

He had to believe she was harmless foremost, and his sympathy turned out not to be a difficult thing to inspire since he hurried to her side now and asked, “Have you hurt yourself, lass? Are you lost?” The concern in his voice filled the nameless girl with warmth that made her almost forget her oath not to rely on the kindness of strangers anymore.

Of course, he was referring to the blood-soaked part of her garments which meant he assumed that she had been wounded. His eyes then darted back to look at her face. When he winced away from her, it suddenly occurred to her that she must not have wiped her mouth at all. That should explain the slick, warm sensation on her chin. She parted her lips so her tongue could come out. Without taking off her gaze from the man, she slid her tongue across her upper lip to lick off the blood in languid strokes.

The man kept backing away now, obviously baffled and growing rather frightened of her appearance. Before he could turn away and scream for help, she suddenly appeared right in front of him, staring into his eyes without blinking as she demanded, “Quiet!”

To her surprise, he obeyed meekly. The bafflement in his gaze told her that he also didn’t expect himself that he would react that way.

Something was definitely off, but she believed it was in her best interest to keep going so she tested a theory.

“Don’t draw attention to yourself and listen to what I have to say,” she commanded, using the same tone as she kept staring into the man’s eyes. Once again, he did exactly what she asked.

She exhaled softly through parted lips as a small began to spread again. Meanwhile, the blood on her mouth and chin was dry by now, its texture almost like soot against the moonlight.

Realizing that if she was able to compel this man’s obedience, then that means that she would have to make use of him for her benefit. 

“Answer my questions truthfully,” she spoke up, “What’s your name?”

“Josephio,” he said.

“Which ship do you work for, Josephio?” 

“This one right here,” his voice sounded far away but he couldn’t seem to bring himself to look away from her. Does that mean she had to maintain eye contact at all times so this compulsion would work?

“Do you know the captain of this ship?”

“Yes,” he answered again, his gaze empty and steady. “He’s my uncle.”

“Good. Now I want you to help me board this ship,” she paused. “But first you also need to perform a few things for me.”

She thought about them for a few seconds. And then she commanded, “You are going to find me new garments and a bag to carry them. You will tell your uncle, the captain, any believable excuse to get me to travel with you. I would also want to be fed. Do you understand that from now on you shall serve me, Josephio?”

The man merely nodded, still staring at her.

The girl placed her hands on the man’s shoulders. Her eyes became bloodshot as she began to feel the fangs bursting from her gums. For some reason, just the thought that she possessed not only physical strength but also mind-controlling abilities had brought back her appetite. She can’t help but feel so... _invincible_.

“Stay still and don’t scream.”

The nameless girl wasted no time at all and punctured through the man’s neck with her ever-hungry mouth.

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**[@DARKIKNOWSOWELL](https://twitter.com/darkiknowsowell) **

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